Two more 40-and-over U.S. women are aiming for Olympic medals in Cortina

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Lindsey Vonn won’t be the only 40-and-over American woman aiming for a medal in Cortina during the upcoming Olympics.

The U.S. bobsled team boasts 40-year-old Kaillie Humphries Armbruster, who has won three Olympic golds, and Elana Meyers Taylor, a 41-year-old who has collected five Olympic medals.

Vonn, who is also 41, returned to Alpine skiing last season with a new titanium knee after nearly six years of retirement.

Sliding and women’s Alpine skiing will both be contested in Cortina during the Feb. 6-22 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

Humphries Armbruster and Meyers Taylor are in Cortina this weekend for World Cup races that double as the official test event on Italy’s reconstructed sliding track.

In her 24th season, Humphries Armbruster is the only athlete in the 30-nation field who competed on the old Cortina track that was shut down in 2008 because of rising maintenance costs. She raced there for Canada in 2004, 2005 and 2008. Now she’s on tour with a 1-year-old son; while Meyers Taylor has two sons.

“Women have come a long way in this sport since then,” Humphries Armbruster said Thursday. “When I started in sport, there was a big misconception on, ‘You can’t have a family and have a baby and come back and be good. There’s no way you’re going to be 40, 41 and still be competitive and be able to race. Your body can’t handle it. You’re not going to be as fast or as strong.’

“Unfortunately, we have to see it to believe it,” added Humphries Armbruster, who won gold in monobob at the 2022 Beijing Games. “I still feel great. I feel like I can push my body. … Yes, it looks different than when I was 24 years old, but that’s the point. I’ve had a lifetime in there of sport. I’ve grown, I’ve learned, I changed, but it doesn’t mean I’m lesser than. … I feel no different than I did in my early 30s.”

With the sliding track just down the road from Cortina’s Alpine skiing venue — where Vonn holds the course-record with 12 World Cup wins — Humphries Armbruster is hoping to go and support her fellow American.

“If I can, heck yeah, I’m going to cheer her on,” Humphries Armbruster said. “I’m going be her biggest fan. I want to see her absolutely destroy some people because A) she’s American and B) she is badass.”

Italian legacy

The International Olympic Committee didn’t want millions to be spent rebuilding a track in Cortina that had already closed and had suggested holding sliding for these games in nearby Austria (Igls) or Switzerland (St. Moritz) instead.

The IOC forced the local organizing committee to come up with a backup plan that entailed using the facility in Lake Placid, New York, if the Cortina track wasn’t ready on time.

But the Italian government pushed ahead anyhow and has spent 118 million euros ($136 million) remaking the Eugenio Monti course in record time.

“The Olympics are in Italy and we want to be in Italy too,” said Humphries Armbruster, who will be competing in her sixth Olympics.

Humphries Armbruster grew up Calgary, Alberta, and learned bobsled on the 1988 Olympics track.

“My hope for this here in Italy is that our next Olympic champion is going to be Italian,” she said. “I really hope that a lot of young little Italian girls get to see and experience bobsled.”

James Bond

German standout Johannes Lochner first learned about the old Cortina track from watching a scene in the James Bond film “For Your Eyes Only,” which included a scene in which Bond, played by Roger Moore, raced down it on skis while being chased by an armed motorcyclist.

“In summer I was here with (my) motorcycle and walk(ed) around the old track,” Lochner said.

So did Lochner put his motorcycle on the track like Bond?

“No, no. Not yet,” he said.

Maybe Lochner can try that stunt after the four-man competition concludes on Feb. 22 — the final day of the Olympics. That will be his final race before retirement.

“I’ve studied electrical engineering, so I have a plan for life after sports,” he said.

German teammate Francesco Friedrich, who swept golds in two-man and four-man at the past two Olympics, is 35 like Lochner but hasn’t fully decided if he’ll continue after the games.

“I only plan to the 22nd of February,” Friedrich said. “And then we see what happens after that.”